Let’s Backup…

Fresh seafood, Bluegrass and msweetie all within 100′ of the Gulf’s warm waves make it impossible for me to keep my blogging promises while on the road. Chris and I at The Blue Marlin on Anna Maria Island.

It’s been a whole month since I’ve posted and even I’m telling myself “great job on the resolutions, Spice, way to not knock 2012 out of the park.” Then again, I’m refusing to give myself too much grief. Even though I have nothing tangible to show for the past 6 weeks I have been crazy busy problem solving for the masses (i.e. our social calendar), getting the new condo in Atlanta sorted out, kicking off the 2012 Wedding Planning season, festival going, producing a cancelled shoot (veins in my neck are still pulsing), brunching with my mother’s fabulous friends, going to a Florida wedding for one of Chris’ buddies, vacationing for our 6th Anniversary, beating the neglected yard back into submission to reestablish the garden, keeping my volunteer commitments even though I wanted to blow them off, and basically doing my best to become a much better person then I was when I last blogged…I know, hard to believe it’s even possible. Any-hoo, if memory serves me correctly, this year’s blogging resolutions lasted about three weeks longer then last year’s so technically, even if I were to stop now, the pro-procrastinator in me can reason that I have, in fact, achieved my goal of being a more dedicated blogger in 2012.

The Raw Bar at Indian Pass in Florida’s Panhandle – one of the many reasons I’ve neglected this blog.

And I was almost fine with letting that reasoning keep me from blogging but then late last week notes from the fans started pouring in (mom, Fawn and a friend who doesn’t necessarily read the blog but she knows me so well), begging me (i.e. emailing to see if I was still alive or if I had gone through on my threat to become an oyster schucker at The Raw Bar) to come back to SpiceJones.com “because without me there really is no me” (I just made that up, Fawn would kill me if I credited her with such an insipid quote)… and because I asked them to call me out if I ever slacked off.

So to make up for all the blogging laziness, I figured I’d mix a couple of weekly wrap-up posts into the current day to day and prove that my blog is definitely here to stay. So let’s skip back to beginning of April and my first return to Boulder:

In my last meaningful post (the guy on the plane wearing two hats was not a meaningful post) I wrote about returning to Boulder from Ga just in time to see the Pearl Street Tulips in Bloom. I was on my way to The Venus De Miles Bike Club and their 2012 kick-off party. There really is nothing to blog about from that meeting… I only bring up it up so that I can share some of the latest, uh-um, “products” for active women I noticed at the checkout counter.

How hysterical would it be to set up a ButtonHole information booth at a North Georgia Crafts Festival?! Mom, I’m sensing that you are not laughing. Moving on!

A few days later, while prepping the garden for the frost resistant seeds (because our last average frost is May 15th) I opened Chris’ garage to air out the bike fumes that accumulate to toxic levels and found THIS!!!!

A sweater I was planning to retrieve from the goodwill pile! For those of you who don’t know what the engine of a KTM 640 looks like, now you do. After spending a good portion of the afternoon thinking of ways to make Chris feel guilty (via my blog) about destroying a favorite ugly sweater that I regretted tossing, I found this in the mailbox…

The last line of the invitation says “WELL behaved kids and dogs are welcome”.

Kris and Jimmy are our neighbors across the street and they have one of those family Dude Ranches you see in documentaries about Ralph Lauren and Robert Redford (both happen to be on “my list”). Each year they kick off the season with a “Mayfest” for family and friends. It’s a weekend of great food, ritzy ranching and (I was hoping) intern cowboys who stand still so 40 year old women can learn how to lasso! Apparently I planted enough emotional seeds throughout the Winter to make it to “friends” status with our new neighbors and now we are in for an eternity of Mayfests! Oily sweater = forgotten!!!! Check them out, a ranch like Black Mountain is definitely part of the Jones’ Colorado dream

We met in the student services building at Denver University. Beautiful campus in a pretty neat part of Denver… still wouldn’t trade it for UGA!

The next day I took myself down to Denver for the first of two commitments that actually brought me back to Boulder in the first place. For the second year in a row I reviewed applications and interviewed high school seniors from all over Colorado for The Greenhouse Scholars Scholarship Program. Over the course of the month I vetted 22 of the 120 students being considered for the 15 available spots. In the end, 6 of my kids were selected for next year’s freshman class of Greenhouse Scholars – yeaaaa! Can I pick ’em or what? I am so proud to be a part of GHS. Their mission is amazing and so far their success rate has proven that it is possible to get under-resourced, over-achieving students out of shitty social conditions, through college and into careers where they can make a difference in the lives of others. Unfortunately my time has been limited this year but in the past I have spent many hours volunteering for GHS. I’m also the proud mentor to a Senior at Spelman College, a friend I will have for life. When you hear me talk about the Venus De Miles bike club, raising money and awareness for GHS is the reason the ride was created and it has become the largest all women’s bike ride / club in North America…not only is it for a good cause, it’s lots of fun!

And that wraps up the public service portion of April and May. Now on to random photos…

Talking about Robert Redford and The Black Mountain Dude Ranch got me thinking about one of the greatest movies of all times (sigh). Wait a sec, call me stupid in love but after looking at this picture I’d bet money that Chris is the love child of Robert Redford and Paul Newman – lucky me!

On my way to DU I stopped for gas next to this Single-Wide IPA truck. The artwork alone makes me want their beer and I don’t even drink beer! I am such a junkie for great advertising, it’s the reason I got into the film business and I will forever collect images and videos from the campaigns I love.

Speaking of advertising, I totally forgot that a big chunk of April was spent working on one of the WORST projects of my life with the biggest group of imbeciles…. I’ll post about it as soon as I get paid (if you know what I mean).